Freedom of Speech down the tubes, ACLU nowhere to be found

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Two editors at the University of Illinois student-run newspaper were suspended Tuesday for their decision to run a series of cartoons that have sparked outrage and violence around the Islamic world.
Editor-in-chief Acton H. Gorton said the Daily Illini's publisher suspended him and the newspaper's opinions sections editor, Charles Prochaska, for two weeks pending the outcome of an internal investigation. "I'm very disappointed. I think this is nothing more than a cover-up," Gorton said.

Daily Illini managing editor Shira Weissman would not comment on the situation Tuesday. A telephone message left with the newspaper's publisher, Mary Cory, was not immediately returned. The paper's editorial staff told readers in Monday's editions that the decision to run the cartoons was made by Gorton and Prochaska without their knowledge.

While the staff apologized to the Muslim community, it stopped short of saying it disagreed with the decision. "We want to make it clear that while we do not necessarily disagree with the decision to print these cartoons, we disagree with how they were run," the editorial reads.

According to the editorial, Gorton and Prochaska ran the cartoons without consulting the staff or the publisher and "behind the backs of those who are being significantly affected by its fallout."

Gorton and Prochaska ran their own editorial Monday, defending their decision to reprint the cartoons, and even called "irresponsible" the decision by major newspapers around the country not to publish the cartoons. Gorton said on Tuesday that other editors were in the same room when the cartoons were laid out on the newspaper's pages and did not object. He also said he continues to stand by the decision to publish the cartoons.